Student's 2007 death by electrocution leaves family to wonder whether alcohol was a factor

Oct. 4, 2013

Wade Steffey's parents, Dale Steffey and Dawn Adams, speak in March 2007 before funeral for Wade, who died after entering an electric room at Owen Hall. 'On the surface, it looks like what happened to him was a result of impaired judgment from alcohol,' Adams says. 'And I just can't say if that's the case or not.' / File photo/Journal & Courier

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Dawn Adams speaks with members of the media before funeral services for her son, Wade Steffey, on Monday, March 26, 2007, at Evangelical Community Church in Bloomington. / File photo/Journal & Courier

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Dawn Adams doesn’t know for sure what happened to her son, Wade Steffey.

Steffey was 19 and just entering his second semester of studying aviation technology at Purdue University when he disappeared on Jan. 13, 2007. More than two months later, after an exhaustive search, Steffey was found dead in an electrical vault at Owen Hall.

Though at least one witness said Steffey had been drinking that night, it isn’t clear to Adams whether her son’s death was alcohol-related, as many speculated.

“When you don’t know the answer and the questions are very big, it’s sometimes easier to guess and let that seem to be the reality that you live with,” she said from her home in Bloomington.

Some things, at least, appear to be clearer.

After Steffey’s death, the university’s law firm hired Rimkus Consulting Group to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

According to past Journal & Courier reports, the Rimkus inquiry found that several witnesses observed Steffey drinking in a dorm room about 8:30 p.m. Jan. 12. He was then seen walking to a party at Phi Kappa Theta fraternity, though no witnesses saw him drinking there. Early the next morning, he made several calls, including one to an Owen Hall resident, and multiple people witnessed a man, believed to be Steffey and who appeared to be intoxicated, trying to get inside.

Adams said the night was cold and rainy, and she thinks he was trying to get his coat.

Steffey apparently tried to get in to Owen Hall through the electrical room, which was determined to have been left unlocked, and he was electrocuted.

The autopsy later determined that his blood-alcohol content was somewhere above 0.08 but below a lethal limit. However, representatives for Adams and Wade’s father, Dale Steffey, who sued the university, called into question the validity of those results because it had taken so long to recover the body.

Adams, however, knows how it appears.

“On the surface, it looks like what happened to him was a result of impaired judgment from alcohol,” she said. “And I just can’t say if that’s the case or not.”

Still, Adams said she had talked to her son about drinking — mostly in terms of not drinking and driving. Though she didn’t know Wade to be a drinker, she said, she also doesn’t think he never touched the stuff.

It doesn’t matter now, she said. The tragedy happened, and nothing will change the result.

“Whatever decisions were made, they were mistakes and they were human,” Adams said.

She took comfort in the fact that Wade’s friends were so proactive about trying to find him when he went missing. And she said she’s now more sensitive not only to the dangers of drinking but to everything young people do that’s more dangerous than they realize.

“Even the best of us can make fatal mistakes,” Adams said. “Young people have a feeling of immortality. And it doesn’t always prove true.”